There is a lot of chatter around the net about DMOZ being worthless along with complaints from people about how long it takes to get listed. I’ve been editing several DMOZ categories for a few years now and I can tell you, the directory is of value, and there’s a reason it takes so long to get listed.
Since I edit several popular categories I get hundreds of submissions per month. That’s a lot to go through. Since so many of the submissions are from spammers, affiliate sites, lead-gen sites, content cloakers, and morons, it takes quite a while to sift through the submissions to find the sites that are of real value. Here’s a list of the steps I take to review EACH submission to my categories:
- Check to make sure the URL doesn’t redirect by reading the server response codes.
- Check for content cloaking.
- Check all the links on the site to ensure that they function and send the user to the expected location.
- Check the content of the site to make sure it is themed to match the category where they submitted. If not, I find the appropriate category and send the listing there.
- Check for a valid cert if the site collects personal information.
- I try to be sure the site isn’t just an adsense advertiser, a lead generation site, or an affiliate site. The site has to actually offer the services they say they offer.
- Most times I have to edit the title and description of the submitted site because the submitters very rarely adhere to the submission guidelines for a category.
I try really hard to dedicate an hour a day to editing DMOZ submissions. Checking each site for the items above takes anywhere from 1-5 minutes so you can understand why it takes a while to get your site listed in DMOZ. If you’re having problems getting listed, check out my Webmaster’s Guide to DMOZ Inclusion.
